EVIDENCE that President Robert
Mugabe’s regime is considering a plan to rid Zimbabwe of most of its white
population has come as little surprise to an embattled and dwindling community.
But the stark language used in a document apparently drawn up by advisers to
the director-general of operations in Mugabe’s Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) has intensified concern that after four years of land seizures, Zimbabwe’s
whites may soon be facing a new threat.

The paper, which has been
leaked to the British embassy in Harare and The Sunday Times, describes a
sequence of events that would set the scene for the ethnic cleansing some
analysts have long predicted. It would start with a bomb attack on a
strategic economic target in Zimbabwe. British explosives would be used and
South African experts called in to verify this. The outrage would then be
blamed on “British funded terrorists”, says the document, which is dated June 8,
2004, and headed, “Solution to the White Problem”. It seizes on a recent
warning by Peter Tatchell, a former Labour parliamentary candidate who once
tried to make a citizen’s arrest of Mugabe in London, that the president’s
opponents in an underground group called the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement might
resort to force. Since Tatchell has threatened sabotage on British
television, and the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), is shifting from passive to active resistance, the paper reasons an
attack on a fuel depot, bridge or power plant using British-made explosives and
detonators could also be blamed on the MDC. The MDC could then be portrayed
as a British-sponsored terrorist movement and the rationale would be in place
for withdrawing Zimbabwe’s ambassador from Britain, expelling British diplomats
from Harare and ordering out British nationals. They would be given 48 hours
to leave, their relatives who had given up British citizenship would probably
accompany them and intimidation at roadblocks would encourage many other whites
to go too, the document says. It suggests that up to 90% of all whites would be
gone after six months. The paper, which British officials are working to
authenticate, weighs up the likely risks and repercussions of expelling the
whites. The chief worry outlined is that Britain might intervene militarily or
that neighbouring Botswana might serve as a base for an Anglo-American
operation. However, that is deemed unlikely: the advisers believe Britain would
eventually accept what had happened. It argues that the MDC could be
virtually exterminated, leaving Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF to score an easy victory
in parliamentary elections next year. The document acknowledges that there
are problems with a scheme to nationalise land, which was announced by Mugabe’s
regime two weeks ago. This was interpreted as a measure to get rid of more
whites following the seizure of thousands of white-owned farms since 2000.
But it has prompted objections from black Zimbabwean farmers and from
President Thabo Mbeki, Mugabe’s ally in South Africa. Many South African
companies and individuals own property in Zimbabwe. The secret service plan
suggests that the “white problem” could be tackled more directly if British
citizens were targeted. It all rings ominously true to Jim Sinclair, 66, a
former president of the Commercial Farmers Union. “There’s no question the
regime wants to get rid of whites,” he said. “Whites like good governance, they
demand honesty, they don’t like corruption. It makes them a serious hindrance.
“People used to say the regime would never be mad enough to get rid of the
white farmers because the population would starve. But they did exactly that.
They could steal our houses tomorrow just like they stole my farm.”
Zimbabwe’s white minority has shrunk to around 50,000 — down from a peak of
nearly 300,000 in the 1960s. The hopes of many that Morgan Tsvangirai, the
MDC leader, would take over from Mugabe came to nothing after elections marred
by allegations of vote-rigging. Tsvangirai now faces a possible death sentence
in a show trial on apparently trumped-up charges of having plotted to
assassinate Mugabe. The CIO plan would see him branded a terrorist leader.
Run directly from the president’s office, the CIO is more than just Mugabe’s
eyes and ears. It is also the implementer of his bloodiest policies.
Nicholas Goche, 57, the minister of national security who runs the CIO, is
one of Mugabe’s closest colleagues. Although he has maintained a low profile,
Goche is as ruthless as his predecessors, who played a leading role in the
Matabeleland massacres of the 1980s in which some 15,000 people were tortured or
killed. Although the dispossession of the white farmers was carried out by a
ragged army of war veterans and settlers, farmers frequently reported that their
attackers were directed by men in suits with sunglasses and mobile phones — the
giveaway signs of CIO operatives. A source privy to discussions within the
CIO said Mugabe believed the removal of the whites would draw the international
spotlight away from Zimbabwe. “This comes right from the top,” the source said.
“The feeling is that whites are the root of the problem: they support the
MDC and give money to it, and campaign about human rights. Moreover, they are so
good at networking, getting information and spreading it. And they guarantee an
uncomfortable degree of world attention. “In Mozambique, where there are no
whites, the government can get away with whatever it likes and the world doesn’t
bother. Mugabe would like Zimbabwe to be like that.”

In my last half year report
sent to you in December I wrote of the great hardships being experienced by
Zimbabweans. Sadly, these hardships have not diminished this year despite the
propaganda being pushed out by the regime that the economy is improving.For all the talk of Reserve Bank Governor
Gono’s economic “miracle” the harsh reality for most Zimbabweans, except the
rich ruling elite, is that life is getting tougher.

The other propaganda story of
the regime is that the MDC is “ready for
burial”. With the ongoing closure of the Daily
News, the theft of the Lupane
by-election and the use of POSA to silence the
MDC (just last
weekend I was banned again from addressing a resident’s meeting in Nketa) you
may well wonder what the truth is. The truth is that the
MDC, despite being
subjected to an unrelenting assault in the last 4 years and especially in the
last year, much in the same way that ZAPU was in the 1980s, is still very much
alive and well. If any party is in great danger of falling apart it is ZANU
(PF). This letter is to report to you what I, as your MP, have been working on
as a small part of this larger effort being made by the
MDC to bring
democracy, freedom and a new beginning to
Zimbabwe. I thank each of
you for the part you have played, for your courage and for your continued
commitment to work together to save our Beloved
nation.

Parliament

As was the case last year
Parliament has hardly sat this year. We had a two -week session in January,
followed by a similar one in late March and for the last few weeks we have been
sitting. As was the case last year, very little progressive legislation has been
debated and much of the legislation is designed to clamp down even further on
basic freedoms. For example, a new Electoral Bill has recently been tabled
seeking to remove existing rights (such as to have access to the Voters’ Roll).
We in the MDC have continued
to fight hard to stop these Bills from going through. If Zanu
(PF) is as strong as it claims to be one wonders why it is necessary for them to
have these oppressive laws to keep them in
power.

As you may have read, a
special Parliamentary Committee has been set up to investigate whether I am
guilty of breaching Parliamentary Privilege and whether I should be punished. In
January in a Parliamentary debate I raised a point of order arguing that certain
MPs should not debate or vote as it appeared as if they had a pecuniary interest
in the matter. In terms of Zimbabwean law it is a criminal offence for any MP to
debate or vote in a matter in which he or she has a pecuniary interest. I tabled
a list of MPs who had been reported (in some cases in the Herald and Chronicle!)
as receiving farms and argued that as they would appear to have an interest in
the matter (the debate was about ways of speeding up the process of acquiring
farms) they should not participate in the debate leaving only those MPs who had
not received farms to debate. This action deeply angered many Zanu (PF) MPs and
I was accused of tabling a false document with the intention to deceive
Parliament. As a result a Committee of Enquiry has been set up. It would be
improper for me to discuss the operations of the Committee as it is still
sitting. However suffice it to say that I am confident that I acted in your best
interests and in terms of the law and Constitution of Zimbabwe. It is always
important to shine light into dark places and that was what I was
doing.

I continue to sit on the
Parliamentary Justice Committee. Most of our work involves an examination of
Bills which are coming before Parliament. Unfortunately space does not allow me
to go into great detail about these Bills but a lot of time has been spent
trying to ensure that we improve important pieces of legislation including the
Administrative Justice Bill and the Electoral Amendment Bill. I have done
considerable work on the Electoral Amendment Bill and will be arguing in the
near future for substantial changes to the existing Bill to bring it in line
with SADC standards. Without a fair, just and transparent electoral process we
will never know true freedom in
Zimbabwe. Without freedom
our children will never realise their full potential. Without freedom, we cannot
join the community of nations seeking to bring opportunity and prosperity to
improve the lives of all their peoples.

The Bulawayo South
Parliamentary office has now been opened for several months under the efficient
and watchful eye of Nomakosi Nabanyama. We will shortly be installing a computer
and refurbishing the offices to make it a better resource centre for the
Constituency. I remind you that it is located in the Nketa 6 Housing Offices and
is open during normal business hours Monday through to Friday. If you have
concerns, suggestions or complaints please do call in, or drop off a letter, and
I will do my best to respond to the issues you raise. I very much appreciate any
ideas or suggestions you would like to share.

Projects

Over the first few months of
the year you may have seen a few teams of young people in orange overalls
digging holes along Nketa
Drive. They have been preparing the
first stage of our “Mustard Seed” project which I hope will ultimately result in
Nketa, Umgwanin and Nkulumane being transformed into beautiful treed suburbs.
The Bulawayo South Development Trust has bought some trees and shortly before
the next rainy season they will all be planted. The Trust has put in a funding
proposal to a donor to greatly expand the project and the initial response has
been very positive. If the proposal is successful I hope that the Trust will be
able to employ a lot more young people to plant trees throughout the high
density areas of the Constituency. Once again I pay tribute to the hard work put
in by the teams of young people who have worked so hard preparing the holes and
to the Trustees. Thanks to each and all.

I am pleased to report that we
have had positive responses from both the Swiss and Japanese Embassies regarding
the Umgwanin Aids self help centre initiated by Clr. A.G. Ndlovu and Toc H and I
look forward to seeing the completion on this worthy
project.

MDC
Legal Affairs Department

I had the great honour of
presenting the MDC’s Justice policy document to the MDC’s National
Conference held at the Harare Showgrounds just before Christmas. The document
was ratified by the Conference and contains far-reaching and progressive justice
policies that will transform Zimbabwe from the police
state that it now is to a country in which everyone will be free. Included in
the policies adopted by the Conference are proposals to enact a new constitution
following an inclusive process, to establish a Truth Commission (to enable the
victims of human rights abuses to have an opportunity to tell what has happened
to them and to establish who has been responsible for the serious human rights
abuses that have occurred in Zimbabwe over the last few decades) and to
introduce major changes to our anti corruption legislation to ensure that all
the guilty are brought to justice.

This year has seen us score
significant victories in the Courts. The Treason trial of President
Morgan
Tsvangirai has concluded and whilst we
still await the judgment I am confident that he will be acquitted of these
spurious charges. As Advocate
George
Bizos (also Nelson Mandela’s lawyer
when he was charged with treason by the apartheid regime) said in his closing
address: “the
State has failed to prove any conspiracy to assassinate Mugabe or to bring about
a coup d'etat”.

Similarly
the State case in the Cain Nkala murder trial has fallen apart. As you know
several MDC
members, including Treasurer General the Honourable Fletcher Dulini MP, were
accused by the regime of murdering Cain Nkala. They have always protested their
innocence.On the
3rd March 2004
Madam Justice Mungwira handed down her judgment regarding whether the State was
allowed to use the “confessions” extracted from two of the accused. In ruling
that the statements could not be used she found that the accuseds’ allegations
that the statements had been beaten out of them were “likely to
be true” and that the police officers “conducted
themselves in a shameless fashion and displayed utter contempt for the due
administration of justice to the extent that they were prepared to indulge in
what can only be described as works of fiction“.
The Judge also stated that the “story
of the existence or presence of a third force (being
involved)
cannot be discarded”.These
are very damning words from a Zimbabwean Judge and completely vindicate both the
MDC and
the accused persons who have always protested their innocence. We now await the
conclusion of the case and the acquittal of all the accused. I am pleased to
report that following the judgment the remaining
MDC
members who had been in prison for over two years were released on
bail.

We
still await the judgment of Justice Hlatshwayo in the first stage of the
Presidential Election challenge case (which dealt solely with legal and
constitutional issues) that was argued in November 2003. Our legal team is
pressing for this judgment to be handed down as soon as possible. If we obtain a
favourable judgment then the election of Robert Mugabe as President will be set
aside. If the judgment is unfavourable we will proceed to the second stage of
the trial that will introduce the massive evidence we have of electoral fraud
and violence which characterised that election.

You
will appreciate that the coordination of these matters has taken up a lot of my
time but it has been rewarding. The MDC is
committed to using peaceful and non-violent means to achieve democratic
political objectives, which is so different to the violent methods employed by
Zanu (PF) ever since its formation in 1963. An important part of those tactics
is to use the legal system even although the regime has tried to subvert it.
Although these legal battles have been time consuming they are establishing an
important example for future generations and have had the additional benefit of
exposing the unlawful actions of the regime.

Finally,
I have been involved with my colleagues in the
MDC
Legal and Election Departments in the formulation of the 15 minimum conditions
necessary for a free and fair election to be held. These are recorded on the
last page of this letter. I encourage you to debate these conditions. I believe
that unless they are implemented a free, fair and legitimate election cannot be
held. We are greatly encouraged by the recently held elections in
South
Africa
which complied with every single condition. We congratulate
South
Africa and
see no valid reason why Zimbabwe, in
its third decade after white minority rule, cannot enjoy the same democratic
standards enjoyed by our neighbour in its first decade following white minority
rule.

International
Work

As
part of the MDC’s
drive to explain to the international community what is going on in Zimbabwe I
have made several trips to South Africa so far this year together with a visit
to Britain, Denmark and
Germany in March. The main thrust of these visits has been to speak to a new
human rights report released by the Zimbabwe Institute in
South
Africa in
March called “Playing with Fire”. The MDC
Legal Department played a major role in assisting in the preparation of this
report which documents all the human rights abuses perpetrated by the regime
against MDC MPs
and candidates since 2000. In the course of my visits I spoke to Judges,
Lawyers, Universities and met leading politicians including the former Prime
Minister of Denmark, the
Honourable Poul Rasmussen MP, German government Ministers the Honourable Claudia
Roth MP and the Honourable Dr. Uschi Eid MP and the leader of the CDU party the
Honourable Angela Merkel MP (who may well be the next Chancellor of Germany). In
all the meetings I held I was impressed by the deep awareness and concern about
what is happening in Zimbabwe. The
regime thinks that it can fool the world about what is going on in
Zimbabwe but
in that it is woefully mistaken; indeed the regime does not appreciate just how
much trouble it is in with the international
community.

Divisions
within Zanu (PF)

For
all the propaganda in the regime’s media that the
MDC is
falling apart the real story is that it is Zanu (PF) that is in increasing
disarray. Zanu (PF) started to fall apart publicly at their conference held in
Masvingo in December when the basic contradiction in the party was exposed
again. Zanu (PF) has two very different groups of supporters – poor rural people
who provide the bulk of the party’s votes in elections but who have been
intimidated over the years and who have believed the regime’s propaganda – and
the super rich ruling elite who control the party. These two groups do not often
meet but one occasion is at the party’s annual conference when the poor arrive
in broken down buses and the ruling elite arrive in their brand new Mercedes
Benz vehicles. The stark gulf between the poor and rich has forced Robert Mugabe
to act against those in the party who flagrantly display their wealth and that
has led to the arrest of several high ranking members of the party this year.
But that in turn has caused deep anger and concern within the party because not
all those guilty of corruption in the party have been
arrested.

But
there are yet further problems for Zanu (PF). In the last few months we have
witnessed serious divisions emerge between the old guard and the mafikazolos,
with Msika and Shamuyarira openly falling out with Jonathan Moyo and Made. In
the last two weeks we have seen in the arrest of Treger directors, the arrest of
Mawere and the refusal to give Mnangagwa an honourary doctorate at the Midlands
University, an indirect attack on Speaker of Parliament, Mnangagwa. All these
incidents have a connection to Mnangagwa and are directed by powerful forces
within Zanu (PF) who are seeking to undermine him. These divisions will become
more acute as the Parliamentary election looms.

In
contrast, for all the nonsense spewed out by the regime’s media about divisions
within the MDC, and
for all the regime’s attempts to divide us along racial or ethnic lines, the
MDC is
as united as ever. Indeed it is ironic that the oppression of the regime against
us has created a deep bond within the MDC. In
our common trial we have developed a united vision of how we would like a new
democratic Zimbabwe to
be run.

The
Way Ahead

We
are now about nine months away from another general election. There is no doubt
that if the electoral process were free and fair the
MDC
would win decisively. But of course the electoral process has been badly
subverted and we are not under any illusions in that regard. Does this mean that
we should just give up? President Tsvangirai said at a meeting just this past
weekend that we must separate our preparations for the election from our
decision whether or not to participate. As he pointed out, a soccer team must
practise as hard as possible prior to a match and the decision whether to play
or not must only be made shortly before the match once the team has considered
the state of the ground and who the referee is. The same applies to the
election. We must as a party practise and prepare as hard as possible in the run
up to the election. Everyone has a role to play. Closer to the time when the
election is due to be held we can then assess whether we should participate.

Every
person must make sure they are registered to vote. Any
person turning 18 this year must register in Bulawayo South. We have no doubt
that the low key campaign to register voters in urban areas is designed to
ensure that as few people register in towns and cities. If that is the case the
regime will try to reduce the number of constituencies in urban areas because it
knows that it is more difficult to rig the elections in these areas. So we must
not fall for this trick. The current exercise ends at the
end of June. I urge all of you with children to make every effort
to get them to register and all adults must make every effort to ensure they are
registered.

We,
for our part, will continue to work with our partners in civil society, in
Parliament and in the region and in the international community to force the
regime to change the electoral process so that it complies with SADC and
international standards. When that happens, we pray our beloved Nation’s
nightmare will draw to a close. Together then we can begin the road to rebuild
our nation – protecting democratic freedoms and creating the environment for
sustained and fair economic opportunity for all.

Each of you have suffered and contributed in your own
ways and I am heartily grateful for your support. As the writer Anne Morrow
Lindbergh wrote: “It isn’t for the moment you are struck that you need courage,
but for the long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and
security.”

Best
wishes,

The
Honourable David Coltart MP

Fifteen
minimum conditions for the holding of elections

1.the
establishment of a genuinely independent electoral commission that will be
responsible for running the entire election and the entire electoral
process

2.the
undertaking that partisan officials such as the present Registrar General of
Elections and members of the military should not be involved in the running of
the elections

3.a completely
fresh voter registration campaign done by the UN or some other neutral and
professional body

4.supply of an
electronic (computer data base) copy of the voters’ roll to all political
parties

5.the repeal of
those aspects of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA)
that curtail media freedoms

6.the reversal
of administrative decisions that have resulted in the closure of the
Daily
News and the
removal of all obstacles preventing the Daily
News and other
newspapers from operating freely

7 the liberalization of the broadcasting
media and the opening up of state media to carry equal amounts of coverage of
all parties’ electoral messages pro rata to the percentage of votes they secured
in the last general Parliamentary election

8.the disbanding of the Youth
Militia

9.the repeal of those aspects of the Public Order
and Security Act (POSA) that curtail the freedom of political parties to
campaign

10.the amendment of the
Electoral Act to bring it into conformity with those aspects of the SADC
Parliamentary Forum’s Electoral Standard and Norms not referred to specifically
elsewhere in this document

12. voting on one day,
subject to sufficient numbers of polling stations being established and changes
being made to the electoral process to enable all citizens and residents
(entitled to be registered as voters in terms of section 3 (1) of Schedule 3 of
the Zimbabwean Constitution) to vote

I struck a blow against the Mugabe regime this weekend -
I pruned my roses.This may seem a bit facetious but you see - by pruning my
roses and thengiving them a shot of good goat manure from Beitbridge I am
signaling toanyone who cares to look, that I am here for the spring and
summer. If forno other reason than to simply enjoy the wonderful flush of
blooms that willfollow my winter care.

On the main road to Harare
from Beitbridge - about 60 kilometers from theBridge, there is a sign on the
side of the road "Kleinbegin - Sam Cawood".Behind that sign is a road that
leads to a farmhouse where Sam Cawood andhis wife Janet live. Local Zanu
thugs have invaded them, all they hold dearhas been lost to them. Decades of
dedicated cattle breeding has been sweptaway by the vandalism, but Sam took
the time to go and put his sign back upafter it had been knocked down. The
name of the ranch "Kleinbegin" - "smallbeginnings" says it all.

What
small thing did you do this week to show that you are not going to justlie
down and give up to the thugs and bullies of Zanu PF? Yesterday 200young
Zimbabweans went to a meeting in Johannesburg scheduled to beaddressed by
Gideon Gono. They heckled and jeered and told him to "go home".They told him
that until their own rights at home were respected - they werenot going to
tolerate his presence, or that of the Zimbabwe Ambassador at ameeting in a
hotel in Johannesburg. He and the ambassador had to be escortedfrom the
hotel by the Police.

Today 70 women are in jail in Bulawayo - sitting,
singing their songs on acold concrete floor, 7 of them with babies, just
because they wanted tomarch in support of World Refugee Day. They will be
both hungry and coldtonight as temperatures drop to near zero, but their
hearts will be warm andtheir courage and determination encourage
us.

Last Monday the Kidd's, Birgit and Shane went down to the local MDC
office,cleaned it up and painted the walls - then painted on the walls that
thiswas the "MDC Chimanimani Office". For their trouble they were beaten
-Birgit has stitches in her head and a dislocated shoulder; Shane was
badlybeaten about the head. Today they are back in their home - still
determinedto carry on with their legitimate support for Roy Bennett and the
MDC in thearea.

Last night a small team went out onto the streets and
furtively beganputting Zakwana symbols on lampposts - then quietly
disappeared to the furyof the local Police.

Tonight the SW Africa
team plus the team at Studio 7 and the Voice of thePeople will broadcast
news and views to the people of Zimbabwe - small teamsof people who love
their country and are just doing what they can in theirown way.

What
will you do today and tomorrow to encourage others to fight on, tospread the
word that change is coming. That Zanu is finished - those who areguilty must
prepare for the worst.

Our men's fellowship from the Church is preparing
to stand with one of ournumber who will be in Court shortly - facing charges
which any one of uscould be facing - we want him to know he is not alone -
we want theauthorities to also know that. His legal fees will be Z$25
million - we needto make sure he is not alone with that either, and we
will.

It could be something very small - fix the potholes in your road,
paint thesign of your house so that all can see it is not for sale - you are
inresidence and intend to stay so. Write a letter to your local Headmaster
andencourage him or her to keep up the good work they are doing. Go to
therugby at Falcon next Saturday - take a packed lunch and shout support
forthe team you support. Take your surplus vegetables to the local old
folk'shome and ask them to see that they get to someone who need a bit of
help.

Let me tell you - there is no power on earth so powerful as the
combinedweight of a united people, caring and working for each other and to
changetheir country for the better. If you live outside Zimbabwe then do
your partif you care - write to your paper, your MP, your Church leadership,
demandaction. Send a small donation to the nearest MDC Trust Fund or simply
to anMDC office in Zimbabwe - small donations in hard currency go a long
wayhere. Try to do something every week - every day if you can.

On
their own each of these actions is small and insignificant, but togetherthey
will make a roaring torrent which will sweep away the tyranny and wipethe
slate clean for a new beginning. I know we all want the grand finale -the
quick fix, but often that route is not just dangerous but alsodestructive.
Be on the side of those who are working for a better life forall
Zimbabweans. Support change by changing your own
universe.

Lord;

Where there is despair, let me be an example of
hope.Where there is anger, let me be an example of love and care.Where
there is need, help me to commit the means to do what I can.Where there is
fear, let me be an example of courage and commitment.Where there is no hope,
make my life and my actions an example to others.Where there is injustice
and persecution help me to stand with those soafflicted.Where there is
no vision, let me set an example of faith, expectation
andanticipation.

Police and immigration
officers are investigating an organisation, set upwith National Lottery
money to help immigrants, after claims that it forgeddocuments and provided
false life histories for 1,000 Zimbabwean
asylumseekers.

Detectives have also been given information
allegedly showing that AlbertMatapo and his wife Grace, the founders of the
Zimbabwean Community in theUK (ZCUK), have provided National Insurance
numbers and fake passports tohelp immigrants get jobs. Last night Mr Matapo
rejected the claims and saidhe was considering taking legal action against
his accusers.

ZCUK, which was set up in Birmingham last year after
receiving a £5,000lottery award to help immigrants, allegedly charges £1,000
a time to coachasylum seekers. Among those who have used the service are
relatives ofsenior members of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF
party.

Details given to officials show how a Zimbabwean posing as an
asylum seekerapproached ZCUK asking for help.

He was allegedly told
how, for £1,000, a false passport would be providedand there would be
coaching on how to dupe immigration officers "by lying tothe white man" by
claiming to be persecuted because of membership ofZimbabwe's opposition
Movement for Democratic Change.

Mr Matapo allegedly told the undercover
investigator, who was working forBBC Radio Five Live, that he would "be able
to live here [in Britain] fordonkey's years".

Mr Matapo came to
Britain two years ago and was granted asylum afterclaiming his life would be
in danger from the government if he returned toZimbabwe. The reality, claims
the BBC, is that he fled after conningwould-be immigrants out of their
savings while running a travel agency inHarare.

He admits to helping
relatives of four government ministers close toPresident Robert Mugabe, who
has called Britain a "vicious, racist andvengeful" country, run by "Mr
Blair's imperialist, neo-colonialistgovernment".

Among those who have
abandoned Zimbabwe is Stalin Mau Mau, once a Zanu-PFparliamentary candidate,
and the leader of a gang accused of forcing whitefarmers off their
land.

He says he entered Britain legally, but his status is now being
investigatedby the Home Office, as are his businesses, which include a
supermarket inLeigh-on-Sea, Essex.

Mr Mau Mau, a former boxing
promoter, stood for Harare East in the electionsfour years ago and was
heavily defeated. Like most Zanu-PF candidates, heroused his supporters at
campaign rallies with one consistent chant: "Downwith the
whites!"

Official figures issued by the Reserve Bank in Harare suggest
that 3.4million people - about one quarter of Zimbabwe's population - have
fled MrMugabe's rule. About 1.1 million Zimbabweans live in Britain,
according toan official estimate from the Harare regime. Another 1.2 million
have fledto South Africa, while 100,000 have taken refuge in Australia. A
furthermillion or so are scattered throughout the world.

Few other
modern dictators have forced so much of their populations to flee.Among
recent comparisons are Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Afghanistan under
theTaliban, where both countries lost about a quarter of their people to
anexodus of refugees and economic migrants.

Last night Mr Matapo said
he was considering legal action after rejectingthe BBC's claims. "Whatever
the BBC is saying is absolutely false," he said."Most of our people here -
what they come for is traditional help. We offertraditional
assistance.

"I cannot just let this go. I am telling them to come along
and prove beyondreasonable doubt. If I am guilty, I must go to jail.
Whatever they aresaying is not correct. I am prepared to challenge this in
court."

The BBC claimed that it had documentary proof and hours of
secretly recordedconversations with Mr Matapo.

'Mugabe's madness forces us out of Harare' Basildon
Peta June 20 2004 at 11:12AM

The South African Police
Service had to call in reinforcements toprotect the governor of the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, anddisperse hundreds of irate Zimbabweans who
broke up a meeting called by Gonoat Gallagher Estate in Midrand on Saturday
night.

Gono is in South Africa as part of his world-wide roadshow
to persuadeZimbabweans abroad to repatriate their income to relatives back
home throughthe central bank and avoid the black market.

He had
planned to address thousands of Zimbabweans resident in SouthAfrica at
Gallagher Estate to raise awareness of the new official foreigncurrency
repatriation channel, called Homelink.

The facility, one of a
cocktail of measures designed to eliminate theblack market for foreign
currency, encourages Zimbabweans to send theirmoney back home through the
central bank at a favourable exchange rate.

'It's because of
Mugabe's madness that I am here' But Gono did not get the opportunity
to explain the facility.

The central bank governor and his team had
to abort their mission andleave the conference hall with the assistance of a
police escort as irateZimbabweans disrupted the proceedings.

They sang and chanted slogans urging Gono to go home, saying they didnot
want to bankroll the Zimbabwe government after Mugabe had driven theminto
exile.

"I want to be home, I don't want to be in South Africa. It's
becauseof Mugabe's madness that I am here," said Joshua Rusere.

"And to add salt to injury, he sends his messenger to ask me to sendmy money
to bankroll his regime when its policies drove me into exile!"

Pandemonium started soon after the packed conference hall was calledto order
and Simon Khaya Moyo, Zimbabwe's high commissioner to South Africa,was asked
to make a few introductory remarks outlining Gono's mission.

In
what looked like a carefully pre-arranged ambush,Johannesburg-based
supporters of the opposition Movement for DemocraticChange (MDC) rose up and
burst into song, denouncing Moyo as "therepresentative of Robert Mugabe, the
oppressor and the devil".

They were followed by dozens of other MDC
supporters who had takenseats around tables in the conference hall. The
entire hall then burst intosong and dance.

Placards denouncing
Mugabe, which had been surreptitiously smuggledinto the conference hall,
were produced and waved around as a hapless KhayaMoyo tried to read his
speech.

Khaya Moyo was then pelted with everything from Homelink
t-shirts andcaps that had been distributed before the event to salt and
pepper shakersand cutlery that had been arranged for Gono's after-speech
dinner.

Gono himself took to the podium and tried to calm his
countrymen, butto no avail.

"Go back home, go back home," the
protesters shouted at him.

At one stage Gono retorted: "Yes I am
going home tomorrow, you havemade your point, but can you listen to me
now."

The few police officials present to oversee the event were
outnumberedas Gono's countrymen approached the podium.

Soon
reinforcements arrived and started dispersing the Zimbabweansboth inside and
outside the conference hall.

Gono's officials had hoped the police
would calm the rowdy scene andallow the function to go ahead.

However, there was no possibility that the proceedings could beresumed as
the protesters noisily continued their action, forcing Khaya Moyoand Gono
finally to abort the mission.

No comment could be obtained from the
men as they were whisked away tosafety. Police Captain De Bruin blamed
organisers of the event for thechaos, saying they had failed to arrange
appropriate security. - IndependentForeign Service

Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government said it would
honour ownershiprights to land bought on the property market, backtracking
on previousannouncements it would nationalise all farmland, a state
newspaper reportedon Sunday.

Citing a letter by foreign ministry
official Joe Bimha to Zimbabwe embassiesabroad, the Sunday Mail reported
that the government would be nationalisingonly the land it had seized under
its land reform programme.

"The correct position is that all land
acquired under the current phase ofthe land reform programme now reposes to
the state," Bimha was quoted assaying.

The report clarifies a June 8
statement by Land Reform Minister John Nkomothat title deeds to all
productive land were being abolished and replacedwith 99-year state-issued
leases.

Nkomo's statement raised fears of massive new seizures of farms,
industrialholdings, private properties and even homes.

"In the end,
there shall be no such thing as private land," Nkomo had
said.

Confiscated farms

But Bimha said only land seized by the
state, including more than 5 000farms confiscated from former white owners
for redistribution to new blackfarmers, was being nationalised.

"With
respect to land falling outside this category, the applicableconstitutional
provisions (of ownership) remain valid," he was quoted assaying.

The
often violent land seizures, combined with erratic rains, have crippledthe
country's agriculture-based economy and sparked political
clashes.

Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, now suffers acute
shortages of food,hard currency, fuel and other imports. United Nations crop
forecasterspredict the country will produce only half its food needs this
year.

Mugabe argues redistribution is needed to redress British
colonialinjustices, when much of the best farmland was settled by
whites.

About 200 000 black families have been allocated land under the
governmentprogramme, most for small-scale farming. Scores of others have
boughtcommercial farms.

Critics of the redistribution programme say
much of the best farmland hasbeen allocated to Mugabe's supporters and is
currently under-utilised orlying fallow.

Production on many other
farms has dropped sharply as new owners lackfinancial resources, seed,
fertilizer, fuel and farm machinery.

VICTORIA FALLS JOURNALThe Best of Times, and the
Worst, for Two Tourist TownsBy MICHAEL WINES

Published: June 21,
2004

ICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe - With a name like that, one would think
this townwould have no trouble attracting tourists.

After all,
Victoria Falls, the town, is cheek-by-jowl with Victoria Falls,the waterfall
- a jaw-dropping, heart-stopping torrent one mile wide and 300feet high, its
constant roar audible for a mile or more, its towering cloudof spray visible
from the farthest horizon. Mere words do not do justice toVictoria Falls.
One must see it to appreciate it.

Where better to start to see the
waterfall than Victoria Falls, the town?

Until lately, the answer was
"nowhere." In the contest for falls-hungrytourists, Victoria Falls towered
over its only rival, Livingstone, justacross the broad Zambezi River in
Zambia. Lively Vic Falls embraced everyonefrom backpackers to jet-setters;
bungee-jumpers to golfers. Livingstone,disheveled and sedentary, had some
historic cachet: it is named after theexplorer David Livingstone, the first
European to see the falls. But fortourists, it was an
afterthought.

Then Zimbabwe imploded. And the tables
turned.

Suddenly, prosaic Livingstone is hot, jamming visitors into new
four-starhotels and river's-edge lodges, bursting with upscale craft and
souvenirshops, clubs and casinos.

Victoria Falls is not. "There's
just no one coming here," a disconsolatebusinessman said, a conclusion
quickly borne out by even a brief strollthrough the deserted shopping
district.

Since early 2000, when squatters began occupying that nation's
white-ownedfarms in what would become a wholesale seizure of commercial
farmland,tourism in Zimbabwe has hit the skids. Things grew worse in 2002,
afterPresident Robert G. Mugabe was re-elected in balloting marred by
widespreadviolence. It deepened further last year, as inflation roared past
600percent and fuel shortages became pervasive.

In truth, Zimbabwe's
violence and repression have largely passed by VictoriaFalls. The region is
so solidly in the camp of Mr. Mugabe's politicalopponents - and such an
important source of scarce hard currency - that thegovernment has avoided
measures seen in other opposition centers, such asthe invasions of
pro-government youth militia, which might scare touristsaway.

But
Zimbabwe's reputation has grown increasingly ugly, especially amongtourists
from members of the Commonwealth nations, mostly former Britishpossessions.
Mr. Mugabe quit the Commonwealth in December after it refusedto lift its
suspension of Zimbabwe in protest of the nation's human
rightspolicies.

One hotelier in Victoria Falls, who refused to be
named for fear ofretaliation, said that tourist traffic from Europe and the
United States hasbeen little affected by Zimbabwe's turmoil, but that visits
fromcommonwealth nations have all but dried up. Some tour agencies in
somecommonwealth nations have removed Zimbabwe from their lists, one
SouthAfrican agent said, and replaced it with package trips to
Zambia.

During a recent visit to the Zambian side of Victoria Falls, Mike
Carter, aNew Zealand appraiser on holiday with his family, emerged
raincoat-clad fromthe falls' drenching mist and said, "We never considered
coming to VictoriaFalls," the town. "We wouldn't bother going 'til they sort
things out."

Zimbabwe's loss has indisputably been Zambia's gain.
Livingstone's hoteloccupancy has jumped since 2000, to 50 percent from an
average of 36percent, despite a brace of new hotels. During a recent stop, a
check ofthree hotels and campgrounds produced only one available spot in
each.

The South African air carrier Nationwide has increased its flights
since2001 to 10 weekly, from 3, and the demand has surged since British
Airwaysstarted three-day-a-week service from Johannesburg in March. Along
thetown's main street, Mosi-o-Tunya Road, rows of stucco buildings
thatrecently housed laborers have been converted to chic shops.

At
Kubo Crafts, one of the road's larger shops, business has jumped by
60percent in three years, said Bhavna Parbhoo, a saleswoman at the
store.

The contrast with Victoria Falls could hardly be more stark.
Zimbabwebusinessmen say average hotel occupancy runs between 20 and 30
percent, andsome of the bigger four-and five-star resorts have severely
pared theirstaff to keep from closing. The world-famous grand dame of local
hostelries,the Victoria Falls Hotel, marked its centennial in June with
hallways ofempty rooms despite a determined effort to lure celebrants with
a100th-birthday package.

The plight of merchants is, if anything,
bleaker. Souvenir shops on the mainstreet to Victoria Falls sometimes pass
the entire day without ringing up asingle sale, one vendor said. Some
wholesalers and street vendors have givenup and moved their operations to
Zambia, prompting a government minister todenounce them as unpatriotic in a
recent meeting with the town's beleagueredbusinessmen.

"Vic Falls
used to be such a buzzing, booming little village, it wasfrightening,'' said
Gail McMurray, a sales consultant for the South Africantour firm UTC, who
added that most of her clients now go to Zambia insteadof Zimbabwe. "It used
to be that you couldn't get a hotel or anythingwithout booking way ahead.
It's not half as busy as it used to be."

That could change, of course:
longtime residents remember that Vic Fallsprospered most in the 1970's, when
Zambia's ill-advised economic policiesdrove that nation and its Livingstone
tourism business close to ruin.

Mr. Mugabe is trying to help, too: the
government said recently that itwould train Zimbabweans in Mandarin Chinese
and Chinese cooking in anattempt to fill the European tourism drought with a
flood of visitors fromChina and Southeast Asia.

In the meantime,
merchants and hotel operators might take a tip from aZimbabwe tourism Web
site, www.go2africa.com/zimbabwe, and try
to turn theirbitter plight into tourism lemonade.

Zimbabwe's national
parks "are completely safe to visit, as they are farfrom the cities where
the instability exists," the site says. "Game lodgesare desperate for
occupants, so prices are extremely competitive.

"And low lodge occupancy
means you'll have thousands of hectares of pristinegame country virtually
all to yourself."

By Alfred ChagondaZIMBABWE now
hosts more than 10 000 refugees, mostly from troubled centraland east
African countries.

In an interview, the Director of Social Services, Mr
Sydney Mhishi, said thecountry was now looking after 10 282 refugees, almost
all from Africaalthough there were about 80 from Near East countries like
Afghanistan andPakistan.

By end of the week, another 14
asylum-seekers were awaiting vetting at theWaterfalls Transit Centre in
Harare.

Zimbabwe's prolonged years of peace, tranquillity and stability,
coupledwith a good human rights record since independence in 1980, has seen
thecountry attracting the refugees.

Mr Mhishi said while
asylum-seekers go to all countries in the region, thosethat came here said
they preferred Zimbabwe because it was a peacefulcountry.

"Asylum-seekers go to all countries in the region. Those who
come here sayZimbabwe is a peaceful country,'' said Mr Mhishi.

He
said Zimbabwe, being a signatory to the Geneva Convention, adheres to
theinternational law on refugees in all aspects of reception, screening
andprotection.

Responding to Press reports that thousands of Rwandan
refugees wereresisting repatriation, Mr Mhishi said the voluntary
repatriation of Rwandanrefugees goes through various laid-down
stages.

The first stage was the signing of a tripartite agreement between
theGovernment of Zimbabwe, Rwanda and the United Nations High Commissioner
forRefugees in Kigali on December 9, 2003.

"We are currently in the
second stage, that of information dissemination toall Rwandan refugees in
Zimbabwe. This will be followed by a visit byRwandan officials to Zimbabwe,
hopefully at the end of June 2004, to explainthe situation in their
country," said Mr Mhishi.

He said a registration exercise would then be
conducted for those who wantto voluntarily return to Rwanda.

"At that
stage, it will be assessed if there is resistance or not," he said.

World
Refugee Day is marked on June 20 every year. In Zimbabwe, it will
becommemorated on June 24 at Tongogara Refugee Camp in Chipinge
District.

The UNHCR says the number of refugees worldwide was estimated
to be about9,7 million, the lowest level in at least a decade.

The
UNHCR defines refugees as people who have fled their home countries toseek
shelter in another country.

It said Afghans remain the largest single
nationality seeking asylum with anestimated 2,1 million people looking for
refugee status in 74 countries,followed by Sudan, where a total of 112 000
people fled the country lastyear alone, and then Burundi. All the three
countries have been experiencingcivil wars.

Pakistan tops the list of
countries for asylum, with 1,1 million peopleseeking refuge
there.

Next on the list are Iran, Germany, Tanzania and the United
States, whichhas 452 000 asylum-seekers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------The
trading of insults among leading political figures in Zimbabwe beliesthe
serious battle for the presidency, writes Bonny
Schoonakker--------------------------------------------------------------------------------THE
following outburst may sound petulant but its pique reveals something ofthe
intellectual quality of the in-fighting among contenders to succeedRobert
Mugabe, 80, as president of Zimbabwe. "I have widely consulted withmany real
men of higher offices," said Ugandan David Nyekorach-Matsanga,following an
ill-fated stint in Harare as a personal spin doctor to thepresident, "and I
have been advised not to react impulsively to thestatements of gay rants."
Students of Harare's palace intrigues interpretthis as meaning that Mugabe
himself ("real men of higher offices") hasadvised his hagiographer not to
take too personally defamatory remarks madeby Information Minister Jonathan
Moyo, dubbed the "Rasputin of Zimbabwe" inthe local press.
Nyekorach-Matsanga - who fell from favour after arrangingMugabe's damaging
interview with Britain's Sky TV last month - was furiousafter the Herald
news paper highlighted the fact that he was a former PRconsultant to the
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the Ugandan insurgentsnotorious for abducting,
raping, murdering and conscripting schoolchildren."If Moyo has any material
left in his ugly gay face he should know that [theLRA] was proscribed as a
terrorist organisation in 2003, four years after myquitting," he wrote in a
statement sent to the Herald but never published byit. "I am convinced from
what I have gathered within Zanu PF that Moyo isheading a traitor [sic]
clique of ambitious and overzealous individuals whowant to put a total
blackout on Zimbabwe from the international world inorder to acquire
power."Nyekorach-Matsanga (author of a book entitled Why I Support Mugabe )
wasouted as an LRA tout by Herald columnist "Nathaniel Manheru"
(officiallyPikirai Deketeke, the newspaper's editor, as he testified in
court onMonday, but widely believed to be Moyo himself). "Manheru" chose
toembarrass London-based Nyekorach-Matsanga in vengeance for using
hisconnections at Sky TV, which made Mugabe look old, tired and
ill-informedabout his own country, someone long overdue for retirement.
After theinterview, Moyo went into action against those responsible, using
his usualweapons of defamation and insult. But instead of gratitude for his
devotionto Mugabe, he was rewarded with public allegations of homosexuality
asZimbabwe's newspapers this week circulated Nyekorach-Matsanga's response
-with the approval of "real men of higher offices". Gay or not, Moyo
shouldcount himself lucky to have got off lightly in the backstabbing
andin-fighting among the candidates for Comrade Bob's job. Other pretenders
andtheir allies, including businessmen who have used their cash to dabble
inpolitics, have paid more severe penalties.

Foremost among these is
businessman Mutumwa Mawere. Acting on informationreceived from Zimbabwe, SA
police may have done the enemies of Zanu-PFpolitburo member Emmerson
Mnangagwa, the front-runner for Mugabe's job, afavour by arresting Mawere, a
director of 22 companies in South Africa, lastmonth. He was released on R50
000 bail after a weekend in a Randburg,Johannesburg police cell. This arrest
is seen as the work of a group ofpower-brokers centred on retired General
Solomon Mujuru, several of whomhave ambitions to take over from Mugabe.
According to Harare-based politicalcommentators, this group includes Sydney
Sekeramayi, Dumiso Dabengwa,retired Air Marshal Josiah Tungamirai and
General Constantine Chiwenga, thecurrent head of the Zimbabwe Defence Force.
Mnangagwa is a member of theZanu PF politburo and Speaker of Parliament and
is regarded as a tough manworthy of the nickname "Ngwenya" (Crocodile)
within Zanu PF's inner circles.But more importantly, as the Financial
Gazette reported on Thursday,Mnangagwa "is key to Zanu PF's complex and
secretive investments". As such,he would be held accountable for any
wrongdoing by Mawere, whose companies,according to the news paper, were
mostly financed with Zanu PF money.

However, a five-member committee
investigating Mnangagwa's role in Mawere'sSA operations had "failed to come
up with anything that constitutes acrime", the Financial Gazette reported.
Significantly, this committeeincluded Mujuru, considered to be Zanu PF's
kingmaker because of the loyaltyhe retains in the armed forces. Among the
Mujuru clique's preferredsuccessors is Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo. Within
the party, he comes secondto Vice-President Joseph Msika, whose presidential
aspirations were mademore realistic by the death last year of his
co-Vice-President, SimonMuzenda. Nkomo, however, has similar chances of
succession as Mnangagwa, thetwo front-runners as things stand now. Others
who have landed in jail orbeen arrested for doing no less than their
colleagues in the Zimbabweanelite have done for decades include Jane Mutasa,
a businesswoman held forforex fraud, among other charges. If she is found
guilty of dealing on theparallel market she should be joined in jail by
Gideon Gono, now thegovernor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. He did
parallel-market deals whenhe was chief executive of Jewel Bank, Zimbabwe's
second-largest commercialbank. He too could face arrest but for the fact
that he gave himself amnestysoon after taking the helm at the Reserve Bank.
Others whose arrest oncorruption charges could be politically motivated
include James Makamba, thechairman of the cellphone network Telecel
Zimbabwe. If anything, Makamba'srumoured friendship with first lady Grace
Mugabe has deepened his troublesrather than alleviated them.

James
Mushori, the fugitive director of the failed NMB Bank, also haspowerful
political connections, but his flight to London in March hasexposed the
limit s of the influence wielded by his uncle, General Mujuru.The tricky
nature of being a presidential candidate is further illustratedby the fate
of Eddison Zvobgo, who for years was considered the heirapparent.
Ill-health, however, has reduced his chances, along with theethnically
influenced marginalisation of his constituency in the Masvingoarea. Simon
Khaya Moyo, now Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa, was alsoonce a
presidential candidate "because of his brilliance as a minister" andhis
connection to late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo. Khaya Moyo was to Nkomowhat
Mnangagwa is to Mugabe - a close lieutenant, but since Nkomo's death in1999
his star has waned, according to a political commentator in Harare.
Theethnic connection can also be decisive. Another political commentator
inHarare (a journalist who once served Zanla during the liberation
war),regards Sydney Sekeramayi, a Swedish-trained doctor, as having the
bestchance to succeed Mugabe because he is a Zezuru, as is Mugabe. The
Zezuruare the most influential of the four ethnic groups - along with the
Karanga,Manyika and Korekore - that make up the loosely defined Shona
nation, inturn the overwhelming majority in Zimbabwe. The distinctions are
not rigid,with members of one group accepted as members of another,
particularlyMujuru, who was born to the Korekore (one of the least
influential of theShona nations) but is now considered a member of the
Zezuru. At least partlydue to his Zezuru background, Sekeramayi has held
some of the most importantpositions in Zimbabwe's power structures since
independence, includingserving as head of the Central Intelligence
Organisation when he wasMinister of State Security.

John Nkomo, who
comes from Zimbabwe's Ndebele minority, which makes up only15% of the
population, however, exposes the limitations of ethnic politics.His
political ascendancy, as the second most senior politician in Zimbabwe,has
introduced a new phrase, "an Ndebele Shona", a variation of a term nowoften
used in state media to describe those who have been assimilated intothe Zanu
PF hierarchy from Zapu/Ndebele backgrounds. Among them is theloudest of
Mugabe's loyalists, Jonathan Moyo, who began to find himselfisolated in
battles before this week's one. Early signs of damage to hiscause became
apparent after his run-in with Vice-President Msika last month.Msika opposed
the acquisition of a highly productive horticultural farm inManicaland
province to which Agricultural Minister Joseph Made had taken aliking. Moyo,
however, managed to prevail in his belief that the farm wouldbe taken over
by a parastatal, "come sunshine or rain". This led to awarning from Msika
that "little immoral boys" - probably another publicreference to Moyo's
alleged homosexuality - should best be careful abouttheir political
ambitions. The spat over the farm spilt over into The Voice,the Zanu PF
party publication, with John Nkomo accusing someone fittingMoyo's
description of "indiscipline and insubordination".

Instead of taking the
hint, the Herald gave war veteran leader JosephChinotimba space in which to
accuse Nkomo of obstructing the redistributionof confiscated farmland.
Merely inky words on newsprint, the spatnevertheless drew the kingmaker into
the fray. Though unable to help hisabsconding nephew, Mujuru stands between
the post-Mugabe presidency and theambitions of any successor, thanks to the
loyalty he retains among thecountry's military elite. At a politburo meeting
this month, Mujuru warned"undisciplined cadres" that respecting one's elders
was the party way. Moyoshould have felt isolated then, particularly as
Mugabe issued a statementsoon afterwards saying that MPs who were
"unprocedur ally nominated" wouldnot be allowed to contest next year's
general election. But this week therehe was again, the indefatigable
Jonathan Moyo, taking up cudgels on behalfof Mugabe in the fallout over the
Sky TV interview. Perhaps Moyo knows thatthe old man knows that he was
right, after all, about the Ugandan's sillyproposal to appear on Sky
TV.

With additional reporting and insight from the Sunday Times Foreign
Desk andTorevei Charumbira in Harare

A
clever and daring under-ground movement has sprung up in Zimbabwe that
isstoking public opinion against Robert Mugabe's government.

Zvakwana
-- which means 'enough' in the Shona language -- has launched abold campaign
expressed through graffiti, e-mails and condoms to encouragethe Zimbabwean
people to rise up.

The clandestine campaign is building up steam just as
the progress ofZimbabwe's opposition party, the Movement for Democratic
Change, has stalledunder the burden of torture of its leaders and state
violence against itssupporters.

A black Z on a bright yellow
handprint is appearing mysteriously on thewalls of bus stations, on busy
streets and over billboards across Harare andother cities. Thousands of
'revolutionary condoms' have been distributed,emblazoned with the letter Z
and the double-entendre message 'Get up! StandUp!'.

Matchboxes
stuffed with resistance messages are left in public places to bepicked up by
unsuspecting citizens. Thousands of Zimbabweans are led to theZvakwana
website.

Zvakwana has compiled a CD of resistance songs featuring Bob
Marley, HughMasekela, Thomas Mapfumo and many Zimbabwean musicians, which it
has managedto distribute across Zimbabwe. The messages are often humorous,
but theMugabe government is taking Zvakwana seriously. Now a team of
seniorinvestigators from the Law and Order section, notorious for torturing
scoresof opposition politicians and civic leaders, has been assigned to
track downthe activists. The unit has in the past few weeks raided the
offices of theMDC and other civic groups and has arrested and interrogated
oppositionpoliticians, civic leaders, journalists and musicians.

'We
are not linked to Zvakwana,' said MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi.'But
to the extent that the group fights for political change, democracy andhuman
rights, we share the same values and we support its efforts. Policehave
raided our offices hunting for Zvakwana because they believe any groupthat
advocates change and democracy is linked to the MDC.'

A police
spokesperson said: 'These people have been spreading material andliterature
aimed at inciting members of the public to lawlessness.'Zimbabweans report
irate police making house-to-house searches for tell-taleyellow paint or
piles of matchboxes. 'They kept asking me, "Who is Zvakwana?Who is
Zvakwana?"' said one Harare resident who was arrested and
laterreleased.

Speaking to The Observer through the anonymity of the
internet, Zvakwanaresponded: 'It is no surprise that they are hunting for
us. This is becausewe are living under a dictatorship. If we were living
under a democracy,then the government in power would allow voices of
dissent. It is clear thatZanu-PF wants to suffocate any glimmer of hope or
resistance. Hope isconsidered most dangerous by tyrannies.'

There is
plenty to protest about. Inflation has hovered at 600% for most ofthe year;
unemployment is at 70%. Last week, the government closed theTribune
newspaper, the third to be shut down in less than a year. TheZvakwana
spokesperson said: 'The current situation in Zimbabwe is bringingup the
right conditions for revolution.'

Zvakwana carried out one of its
trademark 'non-violent civic actions' inHarare just before Zimbabwe's
Independence Day events on 18 April. Activistsspray-painted lampposts and
the large pipes next to the main TongogaraAvenue, used by Mugabe's
27-vehicle motorcade when he travels to theNational Sports Stadium, and 'Get
UP Stand UP' appeared on stadiumturnstiles and walls. 'There was so much
graffiti,' crows the group, 'theregime couldn't repaint it before Mugabe's
trip, so he had to take adifferent route.'

The group also claims to
distribute videotapes of a BBC documentary exposingthe government's militia
camps, where youths are trained in torturetechniques to be used against
Mugabe's opponents.

Zvakwana's main methods of communication have been
the internet and e-mail.It sends out regular newsletters about events in
Zimbabwe. In addition toencouraging anti-government slogans, its website
offers 'activist tips',such as: 'Organise yourself in pairs. Keep an eye out
for your partner atall times. Make sure that you know their personal details
and who to contactin the event that they are hurt or arrested.' It also
advises on how to copewith tear gas: 'Stay calm and focused ... When your
body heats up (fromrunning or panicking, for example), irritation may
increase.'

Its success in using the anonymity of the internet to spread
its message hasmade its website one of the most popular in Zimbabwe. The
government'sfrustration with Zvakwana has resulted in draconian action to
force allinternet service providers to censor all email
correspondence.

'We are encouraging Zimbabweans to make that shift from
lives drenched infear to a future where we can all live more positively and
with dignity,'said the group. 'Zvakwana is asking Zimbabweans to stop
waiting, and to GetUp!'

The Internet poses an insurmountable threat
to authoritarian rule. AndZimbabwe, now in totalitarian mode, has not
disguised its intentions tocontrol information spawned by the electronic and
print media.

Since initiating the "land reform" programme,
President RobertMugabe's government has gone on a propaganda drive to sell
the move as thebest thing that has happened in Africa, and Mugabe as an icon
of blackempowerment.

The mantras have, however, been
countered by an active free press and,increasingly, by cybertechnology,
which has managed to capture the story ofZimbabwe and disseminate it
throughout the world. The best way to deal withthis, government believes, is
to control that key communication resource.But this could turn out to be
futile .

China, which has over the past five years seen
exponential growth inthe use of the Internet, has taken a proactive approach
to control: itsgovernment has become dominant in developing the medium,
which it puts togood use.

But Zimbabwe has failed to get a
grip on the Internet as a tool ofgovernance and control. The official
government web page, www.zim.gov.zw,
isdysfunctional, while Zanu-PF's website, www.zanupfpub.co.zw, is not up
todate.

Media legislation since 2000 has been designed to
control theapparatus of dissemination and quality of information. The state
has alsotried to pry into all forms of private mail through the Post
&Telecommunication Services Act. The provision in the act that
enabledgovernment to force Internet service providers (ISPs) to divulge
details ofprivate mail was declared unconstitutional by the s upreme c ourt
in March.

There has recently been another attempt to control
e-mail through thestate-owned telephony company, which is seeking to amend
its agreement withISPs to make them reveal the source of material deemed to
be politicallyoffensive. The ISPs have resisted the move.

Experts believe government's attempts are bound to fail because thestate
does not have the capacity to pry into e-mail. IT experts have saiddomain
names .co.zw, .org.zw and .ac.zw are the only ones that governmentcan
interfere with. They say all e-mails with foreign domains such as .net,.com,
.co.za and .co.uk cannot be accessed because the e-mail servers areeither in
Johannesburg, Los Angeles, New York or London and are owned by
bigcorporations such as Microsoft' s Yahoo or Hotmail.

A prayer service for
victims of torture in Zimbabwe is to held in Bulawayoand the United Kingdom
simultaneously on June 26, Amnesty International saidin a statement received
in Johannesburg on Sunday.The service would take place at St Mary's
Cathedral in Bulawayo and StMartin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, in
London.

Both services would focus on the plight of youth and
children.

Zimbabweans tortured by their government would be among the
speakers.

"We ask all denominations throughout Zimbabwe and the world, to
pray forZimbabwe and for all those other nations throughout the world which
suffersimilar oppression," the statement said.

Other organisation
that were involved in organising the service were theZimbabwe Association
and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.

The service in London would be
followed by an informal procession toZimbabwe House where flowers and
tributes would be laid in support oftorture victims and in memory of those
who had died.

AFP , JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICAMonday, Jun 21,
2004,Page 7Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans who have left
theireconomically-ravaged homeland for neighboring countries either legally
orillegally are not seeking refugee status but only a means to earn
alivelihood.

The migration is huge and the exact numbers are hard to
ascertain, butaccording to official figures in Harare, more than 3 million
Zimbabweanslive overseas.

Meanwhile, illegal Zimbabwean immigrants
are expelled from South Africa,Botswana or Mozambique every day, countries
where they had gone to seek achance to feed themselves and their
families.

Many return only to be re-expelled.

Zimbabwe, led by
President Robert Mugabe since its 1980 independence fromBritain, is facing
the worst crisis in its history.

It has in recent years been in the
throes of political, economic and socialinstability with sky-high inflation,
recurring food shortages and anunemployment rate of nearly 70
percent.

South Africa, Zimbabwe's southern neighbor and the economic
powerhouse ofthe continent, has since the end of apartheid in 1994 attracted
immigrantsin hordes, including people from its northern
neighbor.

Last year, 55,000 Zimbabweans living illegally in South Africa
were expelledto their country.

"Those people who claim asylum among
all the Zimbabweans that come into thecountry are a small minority. Most of
the people say they have come to makesome money to go back to feed their
family," said Melita Sunjic from the UNHigh Commissioner for
Refugees.

Refugee status is hard to obtain.

Uptil September last
year, only nine Zimbabweans had been granted refugeestatus. There have been
a total of about 1,500 applications seeking asylumand these are being
examined.

Similarly, in Mozambique, the number of Zimbabweans with
refugee status isclose to zero.

According to some observers, the low
numbers of those seeking asylum orrefugee status could be linked to the
perception that many of theneighboring countries would be unwilling to grant
Zimbabweans refugee statusas it might be construed as their disapproval of
Mugabe's authoritarianregime.

"The South African government has been
unwilling to consider [Zimbabwe] aspresenting the conditions that would
warrant refugee status being granted toits nationals," Graeme Gotz and Loren
Landau said in a study publishedThursday on Forced Migrants in the New
Johannesburg.

"Nationals from Zimbabwe have, therefore, almost always
been regarded aseconomic migrants and ineligible for asylum, even when they
have beenvictims of systematic rape, torture and economic deprivation," they
said.

The economic migrations have sparked tensions in countries such
asimpoverished and sparsely-populated Botswana, where according to
estimatessome 125,000 Zimbabweans have been arriving every month to escape
economicproblems at home.

They have been blamed by authorities for an
upswing in crime.

Zimbabwe in May condemned the "barbaric" use of
corporal punishment byBotswana against Zimbabweans caught on the wrong side
of the law followingreports that Zimbabweans are harassed, flogged or
attacked.

But Harare, knowing that it can do little to stem the tide of
nationalsleaving the country, has tried to put the situation to its
advantage,overtly asking "economic migrants" to send money to their families
throughthe official channel.

Zimbabwe sorely lacks foreign currency
reserves and there is a huge gapbetween the official and black market
exchange rates.

The economy would contract
about 4.5 percent this year, compared with13.2 percent last year, Gono said
last week, and hoped to slow annualinflation to near single digits next
year, from 449 percent last month.

Gono has slowed inflation from a
record 623 percent in January byraising interest rates and halting the
six-year slide in the Zimbabweandollar. He aims to return the country to
growth by offering concessionaryinterest rates of 30 percent to companies
for investment, while consumerspay 120 percent at present.

"We
have managed to find a working formula," Gono said.

Gono allowed
the overnight interbank lending rate to jump as high as900 percent in
December from 50 percent when he took over, crimping spendingand slowing
inflation.

But Standard Bank economist Robert Bunyi said:
"Achieving single-digitinflation could damage the economy because it would
be too restrictive tooquickly."

The economy had shrunk by 30
percent in five years, according to theInternational Monetary Fund, after
President Robert Mugabe intervened in theDemocratic Republic of Congo war
and seized farms for redistribution.

Farm production has
slumped, leaving as many as 6 million Zimbabweansat times dependent on food
aid.

The Economist magazine described Zimbabwe's as the
world'sfastest-declining economy.

"We are hoping to wipe out
this negative growth in 2005 with positivegrowth starting in 2006," Gono
said.

On the land issue, Gono said the bank was focusing its
efforts ongetting the new black farmers to use the farms
productively.

"What has happened, has happened. We would like to
adopt aforward-looking posture, which begins to address issues of
productivity."

Gono abolished the fixed exchange rate system,
replacing it withtwice-weekly currency auctions, ending the black market.
The currencycurrently trades at 5 346.17 to the US dollar, after reaching a
record 10000 on the black market last year.

Rising commodity
prices and increased remittances from about 3.4million Zimbabweans working
abroad have helped halt the slide in the localunit.

Foreign
exchange inflows in the first three months reached $383million (R2.484
billion), more than the $333 million realised in the wholeof last year, Gono
said.

"We recognise the infancy of our turnaround. But we believe
that wherewe demonstrate consistency in policy implementation ... there is
alwayscapital that will come our way."